The Gift Wrapped In White
by StuffedCrustLord
Summary: Koyuki finds something very unexpected appear in the middle of the woods during a storm and returns home to show Dororo. Neither of them know what to do with this seemingly harmless gift and must find out where it came from on their own, only to discover that it might not be as harmless as they thought. (Heavily inspired by the fan fiction 'Past Sins' by Pen Stroke)
1. Chapter 1

I was bored today. Decided to do some typing. So...here's a thing.

* * *

The brightness of the moon just barely shined over the dark forest below the empty sky. There were no stars out tonight. Instead, there was only a massive blanket of black clouds that hovered above the Earth beneath it. The cold wind slowly began to grow in strength as the rustle of the trees slightly increased every three seconds or so, filling the normally silent forest with its unsettling sound. Leaves were carried off of the trees and swept away into the heavy wind, animals scurried away into the safety of their homes, and one young girl was trying desperately to make it home before the real weight of the storm came.

She leaped from tree to tree, not missing a single branch in her sight and being sure to land only on ones that were strong enough to hold her weight. A long strand of her hair that was held by a pink bow blew against the harsh winds. She could feel the weather getting worse by the minute and had to get home as fast as possible.

'I hope D. is okay. I'd hate to see him trapped outside the house during this kind of storm.' she thought to herself before her worry for her friend was almost instantly replaced with something else that suddenly entered her mind.

In that very moment, she heard something from below the tree that she was resting on. It was the heart wrenching sound of sobbing. And from what she was hearing, it was that of a young child of some sort. The cry was just too high pitched to be that of an adult and it was too similar to the sound of tears to be an animal cry. Still wanting to make it home in time to not be bothered to see the worst that this storm had to offer, her duty as a ninja forbid her from just ignoring the call and leaving the crying child all alone in the middle of such a dangerous act of weather.

Leaping off of the tree and landing firmly on the ground, she pinpointed the area from which the cries were coming from to a small shrub just beside the tree's trunk. Slowly walking up to the medium sized shrub, she brushed a few branches out of the way and peered inside, immediately shocked by what she saw.

It was a small child that was crying, but this child was not human. It was in fact a dark grey colored Keronian that was laying inside the shrub. It was much smaller than any Keronian Koyuki had seen before, even seeming to be smaller than Dororo's friend Tamama. It was only about eight inches in height from what Koyuki could estimate. Its hat was also pitch black with long curves on each side that lead up to a single point, indicating that it was a girl. But unlike the other Keronians Koyuki had met in her life, this one had no insignia. Both her stomach and forehead were completely blank.

The Keronian was also curled up in a fetal position, holding herself tightly as if she appeared to be afraid of the storm and was hiding from it. Koyuki, forgetting about the shock she had felt after seeing a baby Keronian stranded in the middle of nowhere, suddenly felt sympathy for the small creature, letting her caring nature oversee her logical judgement.

"Hello?" she whispered, the young Keronian's eyes instantly opening wide and shooting up to look at her. The bags under her eyes were even darker than her grey skin, indicating that she had been here crying for quite a while. Koyuki looked into the Keronian's red, bloodshot eyes and felt the strings of her heart begin to tug.

"Are you hurt?" Koyuki asked in the same low volume tone. The Keronian looked at her with eyes of fear before eventually nodding in response. Koyuki, feeling the burning need to help the small creature, reached her hand out and attempted to touch the scared Keronian, only for it to quickly scurry away from her before she could even get close. Koyuki jolted her arm back in surprise before waiting a few seconds and reaching it out once again, only this time much slower and calmer. The Keronian shut her eyes as tight as she could, afraid of what the large person above her was planning on doing.

The first burst of lightning was heard. The young Keronian screamed in terror. Instinctively, she jumped forwards and grabbed onto Koyuki's arm, holding it tightly for protection. She didn't care who Koyuki was anymore. She needed something...someONE to hold onto.

Koyuki was taken a step back at first by this gesture, but soon enough felt a comforting smile appear on her face. Reaching her other arm out as well, she grabbed the Keronian under its arms and held on firmly as she lifted her off of the ground and pulled her out of the bush. She was now carrying the small alien creature in her hands, its small body feeling almost weightless as she brought it in closer and pressed her entire body against her chest. Reaching into her pocket, she dug through her things for a while before eventually finding what she needed and pulling out a small white sheet. Holding the Keronian child steady, she went to work wrapping its body around in the clothe and making sure that her body was fully covered from the relentless weather. Hearing a second burst of lightning appear from nearby, she knew that the rain section of the storm could not be too far behind.

* * *

Kululu typed away at his computer, the light of the bright screen that lit up the dark room around him reflected perfectly off of his swirled glasses. His hands moved on instinct as his fingers sped across the keyboard with his eyes glued to the screen. The last few remaining clues that his trackers had picked up were finally coming together. He was getting close to his goal. He could feel it.

"Where are you? Where are you?" he repeated to himself as his own voice echoed throughout the empty laboratory. His expert tracking skills had already lead him to outer Tokyo, so he could not be too far from finding his target. He had been sitting alone in his lab for three days straight now, and was finally only a few moments away from having his answer as to where his latest invention had gone missing.

* * *

Dororo sat by the flickering candle that lit up the small wooden household. He worried about what was taking Koyuki so long to return home. The rain outside poured down like miniature daggers, barraging the roof of the shack and leaking through the uneven gaps of wood. It was also getting unquestionably late. Later than Koyuki would usually prefer to be outside. Even without a clock at his disposal, he knew for sure that Koyuki should and would be home right now. Something had to have happened to either slow her down or force her into spending the night somewhere else.

'Koyuki. Please don't keep me guessing much longer.' he thought.

The door behind Dororo creaked open. Dororo turned immediately to whoever was entering, relieved to see Koyuki standing in the open doorway, her ninja gear soaking wet and her naturally frantic hair now gone completely flat. He also noticed that she was carrying something around her arm that had been wrapped in a white cotton blanket, but Dororo made little effort to pay attention to it.

"Koyuki! Thank goodness. Where have you been?" Dororo asked, his stress level beginning to weaken. Koyuki turned her back and closed the wooden door behind her, unwrapping her pink bow and letting her hair hang loose.

"I got sidetracked by...something." Koyuki answered, walking up to Dororo and setting the wrapped up Keronian in front of him. Still unaware of what she was talking about, Dororo looked upon the white ball with confusion before he noticed that whatever was inside was also moving. Could Koyuki have possibly found an injured animal and brought it home out of the storm on her way here?

Koyuki took the ends of the cloth and began to slowly unwrap the small creature inside. Once the blanket was finally fully removed, Dororo looked starstruck at the small child laying before him, the young Keronian giving him the same look of shock back.

The child quivered at the sight of the blue ninja. She covered her eyes with her palms after seeing Dororo reach his arm out towards her just as the other girl had done. She began to whimper under her lip, scared as to where the strange girl had brought her and wondering if she was any safer now than she was hiding under the shrub.

Dororo looked up at Koyuki, speechless as to what was going on. Koyuki had a worried frown on her face, anxious to here any kind of answer from Dororo. Eventually finding his voice once again, Dororo swallowed down the shock he was feeling and spoke.

"Koyuki..." he said, pausing again as he turned his attention back down to the frightened infant. "...what is this?"

Koyuki rubbed the back of her neck, nervous as to what she should say next. "Well,...see,...it's like...she was crying, and...I thought that..." she struggled to explain the situation to Dororo before the ninja girl eventually took a long sigh and spoke more fluently. "She was all alone in the woods, hiding under a shrub and crying in fear. I couldn't just leave her out there, even if there wasn't a storm coming. So I grabbed her, wrapped her up in a blanket and brought her here."

"Do you know where she came from?" Dororo automatically jumped to the next question once he was sure that Koyuki was finished explaining. Koyuki shook her head.

"No. I just found her there, crying and shaking in the empty woods. She seemed to be lost, so maybe she belongs to somebody. I figured that maybe one of your friends might know who she was." she answered. Dororo was puzzled as to how this baby Keronian found its way to Earth and why she was alone in the woods. He hadn't heard anything from his platoon mates regarding any visitors from Keron coming to visit, so he didn't think that she could be related to anyone he knew. But seeing as she was in fact a Keronian, Dororo still had this odd feeling that where ever she came from that his platoon did in fact have something to do with her being here.

"So...what should we do?" Koyuki then asked Dororo a question. Dororo wasn't sure of that himself. The storm had already reached its peak, so there was no way that either of them could go back outside until morning. They had to keep the Keronian child here until daybreak. Did this mean that both Koyuki and Dororo would now have to spend the night taking care of this small child? Dororo already knew what the answer was. He got up from his seat and headed toward the counter on the opposite side of the room.

"Try and keep her quiet while I fix up something for her to eat. I'm guessing that she must be pretty hungry from being stranded in the woods for who knows how long." Dororo explained. Koyuki, having a good feeling that Dororo knew what he was doing, nodded in agreement and reached down towards the floor, taking the baby in her arms and looking down at her with a kind smile. The baby Keronian looked back up at her with wide eyes. She felt her tears begin to stop and an odd feeling of comfort begin to take fear's place. Koyuki gently rubbed the small Keronian's cap as she watched the small alien child suddenly let out a tired yawn. She was exhausted from being trapped out there in that harsh wind for so long and obviously needed to be giving warmth. Something about the way that the girl was rubbing her head felt soothing, almost blissful.

A thought suddenly appeared in Koyuki's mind and she turned her attention to Dororo, who was busy digging through the drawers of the small shack's kitchen before pulling out a can of unopened mushroom soup. "What do we call her?" Koyuki asked without hesitation.

Dororo could feel part of him jump at Koyuki's question, seeing as he in know way saw it coming. He turned to the girl with a raised eyebrow and spoke in a muddled tone. "She'll only be here for the night. I don't think we need to go that far. At least not right now." he replied, Koyuki's chin lowering slightly in disappointment.

"Okay. Just a thought, after all." she said back, Dororo feeling a bit guilty afterwards.

"Well, I mean...if you want to name her..." he continued, Koyuki immediately beginning to frantically nod.

"I do! I do! I'm thinking something in the lines of Gurē because of her color. Or maybe something to do with how she grabbed my arm when we first met. Needy? Grabs? No, those aren't good names!" she struggled to come up with a decent name for her, finding nothing half way decent come to mind.

"Um, Koyuki?" Dororo interrupted her. "Maybe you should think about this tomorrow? We kind of have more important things on our hands to deal with right now."

"Oh...right." Koyuki replied. "Okay, D. I must have gotten carried away."

Dororo giggled a bit before going back to the soup can sitting in front of him. Koyuki continued to rub the baby Keronian's head with her hand, glad to see that she had finally stopped crying, at least for the moment. The storm continued to cover all of Tokyo for the remainder of the night, the light of the moon now completely covered by the dark sheet of clouds above.

* * *

Good news, everyone! I'm finally out of my blue period! :D No more depressing stories about death, neglectful loved ones or any of that other downer crap! From this point on, it's gonna be HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!

Oh...wait. I still have to finish Growing and Changing, don't I? :( Right.

Well,...AFTER that, it's going to be HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY! XD

Joking aside, I'm gonna try and start writing more upbeat stories once Growing and Changing is done and over with. I've got plenty of new stories in mind for this fall and am hoping to finally finish some other stories that have been sitting in front of me incomplete for over a year now (except Tamama Vs. Kululu...I've just lost interest in that story completely). But on a different note, if any of you can think of a good name for the baby Keronian, I would love to hear your suggestions in the review page. Thanks for reading and see you guys later!


	2. Chapter 2

Both Koyuki and Dororo watched with open jaws as the young Keronian quickly slurped down the entire bowl of mushroom soup Dororo had prepared for her as if it was regular water. After finishing the bowl, she immediately turned to the small piece of bread that was sitting just to the side, scarfing it down just as quickly. They were stunned. In less than thirty seconds, this simple infant managed to finish an entire meal's worth of food without choking or feeling sick.

"Did she even taste it?" Dororo couldn't help but wonder. Koyuki shrugged, reaching forward and taking the empty bowl away from the baby Keronian, ready to walk over to the sink and wash it. The young alien jumped forwards and grabbed the other end of the bowl, tugging on it in an attempt to take it back.

"No!" she called out. "More! More!"

Koyuki unintentionally released the bowl from her hands in a act of shock. She was now frozen in place, her palms open out in front of her and her eyes as wide as she could muster. This baby Keronian could talk. Someone had already taught her how to speak. Thinking back to earlier when she had found her, Koyuki remembered seeing her crying and afraid. If she was an orphan, then that would mean that her parents could have possibly never wanted her and left her their. But now that Koyuki knew that she could talk, that only meant one thing; she wasn't abandoned, she was lost.

Koyuki slowly turned to Dororo, who had the exact same expression on his face as she did. Turning her body around slightly, Koyuki slowly inched towards Dororo until she was close enough to his ear, then whispered.

"If she knows how to talk, then she must have parents. Her family must have been visiting Earth or something and somehow she got separated from them." she suggested, which Dororo seemed to agree with as he gave her a nod afterwards.

"We should ask her who her parents are and what they look like. Maybe we can help her find them." he replied in the same tone of voice as Koyuki.

"More! More!" the Keronian cut in on their conversation. The two ninjas turned to the child, who was impatiently waving the empty bowl over her head. Koyuki reached forwards and took the bowl away from the small Keronian while using as little force as she could. After successfully taking the bowl from the child, Koyuki stared into the Keronian's eyes with a welcoming smile on her face and spoke her next few words calmly.

"You can only have more if you answer a question for me. Do you know where your parents are?"

The baby Keronian's eyes widened just before she turned away from Koyuki, the sound of whimpering following soon after. Koyuki back away slightly, surprised that she had upset the young Keronian. Then, with her voice suddenly sounding soar, she answered.

"I-I don't have parents."

Koyuki felt an emotional sting from inside her chest. She saw how sad she had made the child and immediately regretted having asked the question. "But then...who taught you how to speak?" she asked her next question with great reluctance, hoping not to upset the child any further.

The Keronian said nothing. She just sat there, weeping and refusing to even turn an eye at the ninja girl. Koyuki began to panic. "I...I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you upset! I'm only trying to help! Please don't cry!"

Dororo shook his head with a sigh, slowly walking forwards until he was side by side with Koyuki. "Please forgive my friend, little one. She only wants to know where you come from so that we may send you home. We only want to see you safe again. I swear it as truth." he said, the child's crying beginning to dim down a bit. She turned back towards the two ninjas and spoke once again, occasionally being interrupted by her own sniffles.

"I don't...I don't know where I...I come from." she tilted her head down towards the floor in sadness.

Dororo and Koyuki kept their shocked expressions as every other thing that this child did or said surprised them to no degree. "You mean...you can't remember anything!?" Koyuki shouted unexpectedly as the Keronian seemed to not be surprised in the least by her outburst. The Keronian continued to whimper as she shook her head to the side for an answer.

* * *

Keroro heard the ringtone on his cell go off mere inches from his head. He slowly opened his soar eyes as he felt the bright light of his phone burn against his blurred vision. Reaching his arm out from under his blanket, he grabbed the phone from his night stand and flipped it open, realizing that it was Kululu calling. Getting up from his bed and kicking his legs over the side, he let out a tired yawn and pressed the phone up to the side of his head.

"Kululu...it's one in the morning. What's so-?"

"Good news, Captain. I found our missing experiment." Kululu answered before Keroro could finish. The green frog's eyes shot open at Kululu's response, causing him to immediately jump out of bed and stand up straight beside the new pile of mangled sheets resting by his feet.

"What!? Where is it!? Is it still in Japan at least!? Is it close!? Can you-!?" Keroro began frantically asking questions before once again being caught off by Kululu.

"Yes, it's close. It's actually currently in the hands of a good friend of ours. Sure hope he's still alive come morning. ...Or do I? I'll decide later. The point his that a certain blue frog that we both know has our little invasion plan sitting in his house right now. Kukuku!"

Keroro's shoulders sprung upwards in surprise. "D-Dororo!? Why the frog does he have it!?"

"Beats me. Just calling to let you know that you should probably alert Giroro and Tamama 'bout this, too. We may need to go out and retrieve it ourselves. Kukukuku!"

Keroro's skin went cold. His pupils turned grey and his legs began to quiver. "You mean...go after it? ...Ourselves?" he scarcely asked, wishing that he didn't already know the answer.

"You got some other plan? Either we go out and get it now or wait until morning and let it destroy Pekopon without us. Kukuku!" Kululu laughed at the dangerous situation he had now forced himself into.

* * *

Koyuki set the small Keronian in the corner and gave her one of her old handmade dolls to keep her occupied while she and Dororo sat opposite to each other as they always did, chatting about there current predicament.

"So, what do we do now? Even if she did have parents, how are we supposed to find them?" Koyuki asked with much concern. Dororo was silent at first, thinking over every option he had in his mind until finding the one solution that he felt made the most sense. Opened his eyes and gave Koyuki a stern glare.

"She'll have to stay here with us until we know for sure where she came from. I'll ask Kululu about it tomorrow. If her parents did loose her while on this planet, then Kululu should at least know how to track them. And even if he doesn't, I'm sure that whoever owns her will come looking for her eventually. I have no doubt in my mind that we'll find out something concerning her whereabouts soon enough."

"But what about her memory?" Koyuki asked. "Will she even recognize her parents if she sees them again? What if her memory is lost forever? What if-?"

Dororo threw his hand up in front of the girl, causing her to immediately drop silent. Setting his hand back down on his lap, he spoke. "We'll deal with that obstacle when we come to it. She doesn't belong to us, so whatever memory tamperings she's been through, I'm sure her parents will deal with themselves. We shouldn't get too involved in things we don't understand."

"I know, but..." Koyuki paused, turning her attention to the small Keronian in the corner. She was just sitting there, looking at the doll. Not even a smile crossed her face as she looked at the motionless toy in her hands. Her eyes appeared lazy as they stared into those of the doll, looking as if she was feeling depressed while staring at the thing. Koyuki could not place her finger on what it was, but something about seeing the small Keronian made her feel almost nostalgic.

She recognized that feeling of confusion that was plastered on the small alien's face. She had felt the same thing when she was younger. She knew what the child had to be going through. That strange feeling of being lost. The fear that you have knowing that you don't know where to go next. Koyuki had been in that same position once before in her life, and to this day had not forgotten about it. Before she was found by the elder ninjas and accepted as a member of her old ninja clan. Before she even had a name. Before she knew who or where she was. But it was long before Koyuki had learned speech. She was barely able to walk when she was first found, so she couldn't imagine how much worse it must be for the small Keronian in front of her.

Her expression turned serious as she turned back to Dororo and spoke firmly to him. "We have to help her get her memory back. Not knowing anything about herself, even where she came from, must be haunting her. I don't know how I'm supposed to do it, but I can't let her just stay that way without at least trying."

Dororo remained quiet after hearing Koyuki's words, Koyuki refusing to stop staring at Dororo until he gave a reply. Dororo sighed. "How can we? How do you help someone who you know nothing about reclaim their memories?" he asked.

"I-I told you, I don't know. But we have to try something!" she said back with much more stress in her voice.

Dororo turned to the child in the corner. Looking at her sour expression, he could see very clearly how much Koyuki could relate to her. She always told her stories of when she was just barely a toddler and how she had been abandoned in the forest before she was found by their clan and trained to become a self-confident ninja. Obviously she saw a part of herself in this Keronian child. She knew what she was going through and wanted to help her.

Dororo let out one final sigh. "Very well. We'll try to help her remember who she is in any way we can." he replied, Koyuki smiling gleefully in return before Dororo turned to her with his serious expression still in plain sight. "But remember, there isn't that big of a chance that we'll succeed.

"I know." Koyuki admitted. "But I want to at least try." Dororo smiled at her comment and gave one of his friendly bows of the head.

* * *

"So is that thing still at Dororo's place?" Giroro turned to his left to speak to Kululu, who was holding his laptop in his hands beneath a flap that he had attached to the front of his yellow raincoat to keep the device dry. He looked down at the bright screen in his palms.

"Correct. Seems to be pretty subdued. Maybe Dororo found a way to tame it. Kukuku!"

"Hey! Don't laugh at that! Dororo could be dead for all we know!" Tamama, who was standing behind Giroro while trying to hold on to the hood of his coat interrupted. Giroro felt a sweat build up as the image of Dororo's death by the hand of this monster entered his mind, which he immediately shook off. He was an assassin after all, so he knew that he could easily hold his own against most things they come across. But against this? He just wasn't sure if his childhood friend could even put up a fight against something of this level.

"I swear, if Dororo dies because of this, both you and Keroro are dead." Giroro threatened Kululu, who only laughed it off, as Giroro expected.

"Kukuku! We'll cut that bridge when we come to it. For now, let's just focus on getting my latest project back. We can mourn over our dear blue friend later."

"Alright! Enough chatter, all of you!" Keroro called out as he pushed against the raging winds to stand in front of the bickering group of frogs. Eventually making his way to the front, he quickly turned to them with Mois standing just to his side, smiling as she watched him prepare his battle speech.

"I'm not going to sugar-coat it, men! We're walking straight into Hell's doors here. What we're about to face may be the biggest threat we've ever come across, and possibly ever will. Some of you might not survive, and the rest of you will most likely be permanently injured."

"..."

Keroro paused in the middle of his speech as he began to silently panic, realizing that he had not yet been given the time to finish the rest. Everyone waited patiently for him to finish before eventually catching onto the unfortunate truth. The expressions of their faces turned into those of stress, as did the Sargent's.

"...Anyway...move out!" Keroro yelled, turning towards the dark woods and marching forwards, leaving his platoon to stand there, terrified.

* * *

Thanks for reading. See you next chapter :)


End file.
